Counterfeit products are ubiquitous—counterfeit money, credit cards, pharmaceuticals, computers, purses, software, and a large variety of other products are encountered by the public. The consequences to the manufacturers of the authentic goods can be substantial. Consequences include not only lost sales, but also brand damage when counterfeit products fail, underperform, or exhibit poor quality. Telling the customer that the product he or she purchased is a counterfeit may do little to address the unhappy experience associated with the product.
With some types of products, another important consideration is product safety. One example involves industrial process monitoring and control devices, which have been the subject of counterfeiting in recent years. These products, which may be used to monitor or control critical operations in a chemical plant, oil refinery, pharmaceutical manufacturing plant or the like, must meet intrinsic safety and explosion proof certification. In addition, the accuracy of measurements taken by the devices is important to safety of the process and to the quality of products created by that process.
Numerous counterfeiting countermeasures have been used in an attempt to help identify counterfeit products and deter potential counterfeiters. These countermeasures can include holographic labeling, RFID tags, hidden marks, and chemical signatures. Key requirements for an effective counterfeiting countermeasure include low cost, ease of use, and difficulty in compromising.